Webby, you are delightful. Amidst a collection of pompous, sententious, and pretentious set of comments (including my earlier comment) your sense of the ridiculous is so refreshing! Yours is the best post so far because it is written in the best Australian tongue-in-cheek humorous style.

Dear Plaza-Toro, I actually do hold to the pro Labor views of old. but based on ALP Industrial Catholic Group[er and DLP ideas of the unyuppy kind.
I am serious. 110% so.
I grew up in Botany/Pagewood/Mascot and cannot stand the North Shore or Vaucluse Liberal nerds and their pompus ways.
They to me, are unpatriotic and economic traitors. Neo Liberal economic policies begun in 1983 under the ALP and continued on with the Libs- all are evil.
It is pretty sick how SOME older Aussies vote Liberal and fail to ask their kids and grandkids about the impact of Libeal supporting emploers who are anti union and who deny proper pay increases and who deny or rmeove rostered days off and treat their kids and grandkids like sweatshop Chinamen.
I personally consider that terrorists within Australia are not the only traitors. We also have economic traitors in those oldies who support Liberal Govts, and voted for them, which means that their kids enjoy LESS pay, less time off,a nd casualised hourly work UNLIKE THEMSELVES BEFORE THEY WENT CURIOUSLY FORGETFULL IN THEIR SELFIST AND SELFISH OLD AGE.
In much of manufcaturing( or what now remains of it in Australia) employers have got trades assistants and machine techicians to take up tools and do the work of fitters and turners.
The ALP govts of Hawke and Keating began this process; and then JOhn Howard's Government continued it.
This de-classification of work under the euphemism of 'multi-skilling' resulted in untrained and often partially trades or no trade certificated workers doing the work of tradesmen. This resulted in pharmaceutical and other manufcaturing industries retrencing tens of thousands of tradesmen, particularly fitters and turners. Some companies even tried ot get people to take up electical jobs !! This is even worse in that electrocutions occured. Thankfully the Electrical Trades Union ( ETU) have good and decent vigilant union officials well supported by sparkies on the job who stopped work and even striked to stop this nonsense.
What would a Bertus or a Cardinal Pell ever say about genuine bread and butter issues like this?

Webby,

The industrial groups were not Catholic, but anti-communist Labor groups which welcomed people of all faiths and none.

As for the Liberals, you would probably appreciate the words of Frank Knopfelmacher, who said, "As you marked your second preference with your right hand, you held your nose with your left."

All governments need strong oppositions, so I hope that the Liberals do rebuild themselves, but I think they will find the task very difficult because there are no fundamental principles that bind them together.

I'd say, let's not try to set Concetta Fierravanti-Wells straight. Let her continue believing what she wants to believe.

The longer the Liberals stay out of touch, the longer they stay out of power.

Should be several terms, at least.

:D

Shh people. Let Senator Wells get back to matters of the utmost, importance, like nitpicking incidents of bias at the ABC. Those evil pinkos must be stopped right?

Laughed like a loon when one poster said Howard was turfed because Howard went too far to the left. Pray tell, in a world where all things are relative, aside from the cockup that is the Bush administration, which governments are the more 'right wing' ones than Howard?

This article was most amusing. I hope Ms Wells understands how the name 'Liberal' was first applied to the party, and how the social conservatism is a reasonably recent phenomenon.

It's a good omen though. As long as those clowns continue to actually believe things like this, they're going to be out in the cold for a very long time.

Chris C is spot on!

we do need a strong opposition party, so what are the Webby's of the world to do?

The ALP has sold them down the drain - just look at what Iemma's post-election announcement and what it will do for all those ETU members who placed the ubiquitous 'Your rights at work' posters on sundry power poles with employer provided equipment and no Council approvals. Perhaps the signs should have read "Your right(wing)at work!" Nevermind, these Unionists will still vote ALP even if via the Greens backdoor etc.

So what to do? Who will represent conservative Australia?

A revitalised Liberal Party without Workchoice right wingers and social lefties like Nelson, Georgio,that Qld Doctor and their ilk? Liberal or Libertine?

Is the Liberal 'Church' that broad? Or will conservative voters be faced with a dogmatic choice like the Anglican Church and Dr Jensen.

What are the basics that all conservatives can subscribe too?